Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Twin Regolith shielded habitats on a sintered lunar surface area. Each habitat module is connected to each other by an inflatable pressurized walkway.

Permanent outposts on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars could be the first major steps towards the expansion of human civilization into the rest of the solar system. Unaided traction for human walking requires a gravity that is at least 10% of the gravity at the Earth's surface. The Moon, Mars, Mercury, and the Jovian moon, Callisto, are all worlds that have surface gravities higher than 0.1 g. So these are extraterrestrial worlds that will probably be accessible for continuous human occupation before the end of the century. However, whether such low gravity environments would have significant deleterious effects on human health and reproduction is currently unknown. But long before the permanent settlement of extraterrestrial worlds, human outpost on the Moon and Mars, could have beneficial scientific, commercial, and even strategic benefits for those nations and businesses that dare to venture there.

Planets and Moons within the solar system that are potentially suitable for human colonization:

Moon

surface area relative to the Earth: 7.4%

surface gravity relative to the Earth: 0.17g

diameter relative to the Earth: 27.3%

Mars

surface area relative to the Earth: 28.4%
surface gravity relative to the Earth: 0.38g

diameter relative to the Earth: 53.1%

Mercury

surface area relative to the Earth: 14.7%
surface gravity relative to the Earth: 0.38g

diameter relative to the Earth: 38.3%

Callisto

surface area relative to the Earth: 14.3%
surface gravity relative to the Earth: 0.13g

diameter relative to the Earth: 37.8%

Note: Land area comprises 29% of the Earth's surface with 71% covered by water

Regolith shielded habitat designed for the Moon and Mars. Mobile water tanker provides water to the habitat for drinking, washing, growing food, and for the production of air.

Internal view of a regolith shielded habitat with regolith placed within the two meter cavity within the automatically deployed walls surrounding the 8.4 meter in diameter pressurized habitat.

Permanent outpost on the surface of the Moon could immediately exploit
lunar regolith to protect humans from significant exposure to harmful
levels of radiation. Just two meters of lunar regolith dumped within
the walls of a lunar regolith habitat could reduce annual cosmic
radiation exposure below the maximum legal limit for radiation workers
on Earth (5 Rem per year) during the solar minimum while also
protecting astronauts from radiation exposure from major solar events.
Protection from micrometeorites and extreme temperature fluctuations
would be an added benefit of insulating a lunar habitat with regolith.

A single lunar habitat derived from the technology used to make the light weight 8.4 meter in diameter hydrogen fuel tanks for the SLS could provide two levels of floor space approximately 111 square meters in area. That would be more floor space than the average home in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Russia, and in the UK. The deployment of such habitats for the private commercial community could also be used as lunar hotels for space tourist or to house workers for private companies involved in the export of lunar water or regolith for government and private entities.

Creating solid pavement for the deployment of habitats and other lunar outpost components upon dust free surfaces could be created by using mobile robots to pave and sinter lunar regolith. This could eliminate tracking in deleterious lunar dust into pressurized habitats when astronauts are working in the paved lunar outpost area.

Mobile water tanker for storing and transporting water and a mobile water extracting robot that uses microwaves to extract water from regolith from the shadowed areas of the lunar poles.

In the lunar polar regions, roving microwave water extraction robots could mine ice particles from the permanently shadowed areas for the production of water. Water, of course, can be used for drinking, washing, food preparation, and for growing food. Water can also be electrolyzed for the production of oxygen for air and for the production of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel needed to return to Earth.

Human biowaste could be converted into methanol through pyrolysis. Methanol and oxygen can be used with fuel cells to produce electricity for back up energy during periods of lunar darkness. The water produced from the combustion of methanol and oxygen can be
recycled. The CO2 produced from the manufacture of methanol and from the combustion of methanol in fuel cells can be used to enhance the growth of indoor lunar
crops. Small portable methanol fuel cells could also be used to provide power for pressure suits during lunar excursions.

Nitrogenous biowaste, such as urine, could be used as fertilizer for lunar crops.

However, there is some evidence that substantial quantities of carbon and nitrogenous material may also be a significant component of the permanently shadowed areas at the lunar poles. Astronauts stationed at lunar outpost at the lunar poles could used to explore and to quantify the amount of volatiles located within the shadowed regions.

Buried nuclear power plant on the lunar surface (Credit: NASA)

While solar panels attached to the habitats would provide the initial power for a lunar habitat, small nuclear reactors buried beneath the lunar regolith only a few hundred meters away could provide substantial amounts of electricity for the lunar facility, 24 hours a day.

Outposts originally designed for the lunar surface could also be utilized on the surfaces of Mars, Mercury, and Callisto and
even on the meager surfaces of large asteroids and on the moons of Mars.

Three regolith shielded habitat modules on a sintered Martian surface area. Each habitat module is connected to each other by two inflatable pressurized walkways.

Permanent outpost on the Moon and Mars and on other worlds, would allow the continuous exploration of those surfaces by both humans and robots. Unmanned solar or nuclear powered rovers on the lunar surface, operated by humans on Earth, could visit and collect samples from practically every area on the surface of the Moon. The collected rocks and soil could then be returned to the lunar outpost for immediate study or for eventual export back to Earth.

On Mars, both robotic rovers and hydrogen blimps could be utilized to continuously explore the Martian surface. Such robots could be operated in real time by the astronauts on the Martian surface or in orbit around Mars at a space station. Again, the collected samples by the remote controlled robots could be returned to the Martian outpost for immediate study or for eventual export back to Earth.

A permanent US government presences on the surface of the Moon and Mars will also enhance the ability of private American companies to protect their assets from potentially hostile foreign entities that will probably also be on these new worlds by mid century.

"The knowledge that we have now is but a fraction of the knowledge we must get, whether for peaceful use or for national defense. We must depend on intensive research to acquire the further knowledge we need ... These are truths that every scientist knows. They are truths that the American people need to understand." (Harry S. Truman 1948).